Texas Tea Party Senator Cruz is Calling for a Government Shutdown After ONLY Four Days in Office

Way to go Texas -- you have hit a new low in electing a Senator!

Texas sent Tea Party Senator Ted Cruz to DC who in less than a week in the US Senate is trying to rewrite history along with proving he is going to be an obstructionist by talking about they need to shut down Government like in the 90's.  American people were furious at Republicans for shutting down Government in 1995-96 which seems lost in his comments.  Sen Cruz also forgets that Republicans controlled both Houses of Congress which led to the six-day shutdown costing taxpayers about $800 million after a stalemate with Pres Clinton.

GOP had just taken over, elected Gingrich Speaker, and became very arrogant thinking they were completely in charge and what they wanted was going to happen.  How did that work out?  That is $800M that the Government had to pay out thanks to the stubbornness of Republicans in Congress led by then Speaker Gingrich and stubbornness President Clinton holding firm on his budget of excess spending.  Two hard headed people ended up costing the taxpayers.  Both sides over the years have forgotten that when they do something stupid, the taxpayers get the bill.  Twice the Government was shut down under Clinton:

From November 14 through November 19, 1995 and from December 16, 1995 to January 6, 1996 the U.S. government was shut down as a result of a budgetary impasse between Congress and the White House. The shutdown was precipitated by a dispute between Democratic President Bill Clinton and Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich over domestic spending cuts in the fiscal year 1996 budget and resulted in a bipartisan agreement to balance the budget in seven years' time.

Politically speaking, President Clinton got the better of the 1995-96 government shutdown. Whereas Gingrich expected the public to side with the Republican Party during the dispute, opinion polls showed that a majority of Americans felt that the impasse had been the result of Republican obstinacy. However, the 1995-96 government shutdown demonstrated the costs of divided government and, more importantly, shifted the political discourse to the right. Although the budget deal restored many of the Republican's proposed cuts in domestic spending, Clinton adopted a more centrist position for the remainder of his presidency. Clinton's move to the right was exemplified in his State of the Union Address of January 27, 1996, in which he declared that "the era of big government is over."  

Unlike the 90's where we actually had some rational senators on both sides, today the GOP is going into negotiations saying they are not budging while starting to talk about shutting down Government.  The GOP House in 1995 was convinced on the second shutdown that it would enable them to take out Clinton to put a Republican in the White House but being the experienced politico that he was, he used it to his advantage moving to the center winning reelection.  With an agreement between Clinton and Congress in place to reign in spending, the US had a balanced budget for the first time in a long time.  Republicans then went from controlling spending during the Clinton years to runaway spending on new programs and earmarks during the Bush 43 years costing them the Congress in 2006.

Senator Cruz has obviously not figured out that circumstances are different today and the American people thanks to the internet are much smarter on how Government operates.  President Obama was reelected by over five million votes and has the support of the American people.  In the Senate where the Democrats had to defend 23 seats they picked up two seats while Republicans lost two seats out of only ten they had to defend.  The House lost the popular vote by of one million but retained control because of gerrymandering but still ended up losing seats.  In 1994, the Republican Party was in a very strong position just having taken over the Congress after years of Democrat control, but Republicans overplayed their hand and helped re-elect Bill Clinton because of their stubbornness.

We are seeing that stubbornness once again with the 'my way or no way' stance which lost them support in the 90's and is losing them even more support today.  The GOP Congress seems to have no intention of working with President Obama as some are still acting like he is not the legitimate President.  The American people spoke in 2012 and many in the Republican Party did not hear what was said.  Instead we have more hard right Senators making dumb comments on hard right talk radio.  Does Cruz think this is going to get him support across the Country so he can run for President as we are already seeing mentioned?  He is already calling for a 1995 style shutdown showing that he is controlled by the Koch Bros Tea Party faction along with their groups.  This is insanity talk IMHO:

Republican Senator Calls For Repeat Of 1995 Government Shutdown: ‘If We Hold Strong We Can Do That Again’ 

By Scott Keyes posted from ThinkProgress Economy on Jan 7, 2013 at 3:22 pm
Tea Party-aligned Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), within days of being sworn in, is already calling for a government shutdown unless Congress agrees to massive budget cuts. 

During an appearance on Mark Levin’s radio show Friday, Cruz waxed poetic about the last time Republicans successfully shut down the government in 1995, arguing that a shutdown leads to better economic policies. “Because Republicans stood strong in 1995, we saw year after year of balanced budgets,” Cruz said. He went on to call for a repeat as Republicans hold the nation’s fiscal solvency hostage in the debt ceiling fight next month. “If we hold strong we can do that again,” the Texas Senator declared: 

CRUZ: What would happen if the debt ceiling isn’t raised is it would be a partial government shutdown. We’ve seen this before, we saw this in 1995, when Republicans in the House shut down the government. What happened was it was a partial shutdown, there was some political cost to be paid but at the end of the day, because Republicans stood strong in 1995, we saw year after year of balanced budgets and some of the most fiscally-responsible policies Congress has produced in the modern-era. If we hold strong we can do that again. It just comes down to Republicans. Are we willing to stand strong and face the wrath of the mainstream media criticizing us and the president saying nasty things about us?

Excerpt:  Read More at Think Progress

Not to realize that Republicans do not control the Senate like they did in 1995 shows a lack of common sense and maturity in my book which I have come to expect out of Tea Party office holders.  They have zero common sense as witnessed with Rep Bachmann submitting a bill this session to repeal Obamacare that has already cost the taxpayers $50M with the other 33 repeal bills.  Bachmann is the example of a gerrymandered district and then she only barely won with a ton of money and a challenger who had never run for office.  Bet she loses in 2014 with the Democrats finally waking up to the fact they have to nominate good candidates to take out Tea Party candidates.

Came out yesterday that only 8% identify themselves as Tea Party today?  We are not talking about a liberal poll -- we are talking about a Rasmussen Poll which is slanted right:

The Tea Party is more unpopular than ever before, according to a Rasmussen poll released Monday, with just three in 10 voters holding favorable views of the movement. Half of respondents said they view the party unfavorably. 

Those numbers represent a considerable dive in support since the Tea Party's heyday in 2009, when a majority of voters rated it favorably. 

Many of the Senate challengers with Tea Party backing were defeated in 2012, and the movement suffered another PR blow after a falling out among the leadership of the Tea Party group FreedomWorks. 

Although most members of the House's Tea Party Caucus were reelected in November, the group had some high-profile losses, including the defeats of former Reps. Joe Walsh and Allen West. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), the chairwoman of the House Tea Party Caucus, barely retained her seat. 

The movement is now widely seen by the public as declining, according to the Rasmussen poll -- 56 percent of voters said the Tea Party became less influential over the past year, and just 8 percent said they identified as part of the Tea Party movement.

With all the background that the Tea Party is losing its support in the Country, along comes the new Texas Senator Cruz spouting off about shutting down government as a member of the minority in the Senate.  This says to most people with common sense that some Republicans in the Congress have no intention of working with the President and are going to go use the same obstructionist tactics as before.   That obstructionism is leading to new rules on filibusters which have a good chance of passing.

Blame the media for part of this with even covering what a Freshman Senator has to say and then saying he could run for President in 2016.  How stupid has the inside the beltway media become?  The GOP pushes a narrative and facts don't seem to matter to many of today's political reporters as they report the GOP narrative.

Where is leadership in the Senate to tell a Freshman to learn the ropes before spouting off -- MIA.  Minority Leader McConnell seems to be more worried about his own reelection and if Ashley Judd is going to run against him, then actually running the GOP Caucus.

GOP lost Senator DeMint as a member of the Senate Tea Party when he resigned to head a think tank but gained Cruz who may end up being much more annoying and obnoxious. DeMint had experience in the House and spent time in the Senate before he started speaking out and then forming his PAC to elect Tea Party candidates.  Cruz hasn't even been there a week before speaking out on shutting down the Government which I guess you could say is typical of what the Country has come to expect of elected Tea Party conservatives.  At one time the conservatives had principled ideas but today it is about raising money off of ludicrous statements and being obstructionists.  They want cuts but mention defense and they run for the hills screeching like a ban-chi.

Voting against Hurricane Sandy relief did me in completely along with not wanting to raise taxes on the wealthy.  Same group that spent $50M to try and repeal Obamacare.  The lack of caring for others out of a lot of today's Republicans in Congress has made me lose what little respect I had left for the GOP.  These GOP members of Congress who voted against Hurricane Sandy relief didn't hesitate to vote for relief for their own state in the past.   Guess they only believe in relief for a red state today -- blue states need not apply seems to be the message they are sending.

Do the Country a favor and vote out the Tea Party in 2014 to return common sense to the Congress.